His Newest and Most Dangerous Power
by Child of Darkness and Chaos
Summary: Cole Macgrath, The Demon of Empire City, The Beast, wandered the U.S. looking for Conduits to save when he gains a new, yet familiar power and along with it a choice.
1. Chapter 1

Everything that lives must die, every living being knows that cold, harsh truth, and no one knows it better than the United States. The plague struck America with no regards for the millions of lives that it took and the billions of others that it affected through those deaths. People started to signs of having the disease and in the later part of the day, they suddenly fell to the ground with glassy eyes that weren't even aware that was the last time that they would see. So many people were afflicted with this strange brutal virus that it became common to see people falling sporadically and then being hauled off by others wearing masks to the nearest graveyards with awaiting graves.

There were no funerals, many felt that it was pointless seeing as it was only a matter of how soon it would be before they would see their loved ones. The antibiotics and the other treatments provided by the hospitals and clinics would only serve to deny the inevitable and most civilians refused to take any, viewing medication as a means to prolong a battle when the war was already lost.

Hell even the countries that once allied themselves with the American people cut their ties with them, but didn't dare even try to extract their ambassadors out from the forsaken place for fear that the disease that was making America draw its last breath would follow their people back to them.

So it was exactly like Empire City, instead of a city being quarantined from the nation for fear of an outbreak, it was the nation being isolated from the world.

The few that did take the medications were because they were just in denial of that simple fact: that they were to die soon, that their time was to end so abruptly with no means to live through it.

…That is unless you were a Conduit.

Yes at first the idea that some people could survive the very thing that was killing millions every second, but seemed unable to touch a selected few brought the hope that was dying back to full blast. Over time however when people that were confirmed to have the Conduit gene also seemed to die, panic flooded the very hearts of people, it seemed that the disease was the Reaper in disguise as it never seemed to fail kill anything it came in contact with.

The misunderstanding was cleared up soon as The Beast had publicly shown the people via T.V. broadcast that only Conduits that had their power _activated_ could survive it. You can imagine the looks on people's faces that it took an explosion that exerted some the same kind of radiation, though at a larger concentration and in a quick amount of time, and the sacrifice of others for a Conduit to gain his/her powers and to be free from death's skeletal hands. .

When people learned that The Beast was going round the U.S. looking for Conduits to save, they had mixed feelings for the red-glowing superhuman.

Some thought that he was a modern-day messiah, most thought that he was a threat greater the plague itself.

So the ones that viewed him as a horseman of the apocalypse sent waves of attacks at him and his followers, each attempt ended in failure. Volleys of missiles were shot down by orange lightening from the sky or the palm of The Beast's hands. Infantry men were fried, frozen, butchered, pummeled, and massacred. Tanks exploded before they even fire a shell and C4 explosions were absorbed and released towards the soldiers that opposed the evolution of humanity.

So before long things fell into routine again with some differences, people still slumped to the ground lifeless and dropped into hastily made graves. This time though people also looked out for the ice woman with dark blue hair and startling light blue eyes. She was the herald to one's survival and a hundred's deaths.

Life goes on… until Cole MacGrath is given a new yet familiar power and confronted with the same problem of a man named Kessler.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own inFAMOUS 1 or 2**

Cole MacGrath walks down a street dressed in cloak and a hat so as to hide his identity from the public's eye. He passes the ruins of skyscrapers and small businesses and people who filled the side walks, watching T.V.s mounted on crates, eating, boasting to each other of their powers and their skills. The children are experimenting with their abilities and inventing new games with them, few are daring the others to shoot a cup from twenty feet away, others about falling from a two story building and not get a single scratch.

This space and others like it that held destroyed buildings and cracked streets were called the Ashes as the working members of the new society have yet to rebuild the area. Though there would only be one place in this city where nothing would be restored and that would be... The birth place of the Demon of Empire City, the area that was engulfed in the explosion from the Ray Sphere.

Conduit's liked to come there as the place is somewhat of a tourist attraction as it is where the leader of their kind gained his powers. Another reason though would be that he resides somewhere near there.

_'What gave it away? Was it the orange lightning that sporadically rains from the sky? Or was it that Kuo had been seen walking around here?'_ The electric man mused.

Cole moves forward to his destination and passes by a television that was showing the newest report from the outside.

"Today marks the first year of the domination of the United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Nowadays however the dominated countries are to referred as the Inhuman Notorious Faction of Ambiguous Manifestations and Onward Upgrades in Science, otherwise known as I.N.F.A.M.O.U.S. The other names for the countries are The Beast's Dwelling and in a derogatory fashion, Comic Kingdom. However you call it though, I.N.F.A.M.O.U.S's and The Beast's continuing existances are surely going to come to an end despite the previous failed assaults on its lands and its central city. The people of the world can rest assured however as the militaries of every nation are working together to develop a plan to..."

That was all that was heard as MacGrath moves out of earshot of the T.V.'s updates.

The names that were labeled onto this place weren't welcomed, nor were they the real name of this new nation. The denizens of this reborned nation call it Humanity's Ashes.

Cole wanders down the street and eventually comes to a park. He continues walking until he comed to a burial site. This place was the only spot in the ruins of Empire City that was rebuilt, it was immediately remade into its orginal state, the graveyard of the blast victims, but more importantly the resting place of Trish... Nix and Zeke.

He trods past the countless graves and looms over the wooden crosses and the stone plaques that he himself made. He stares at it with a stony gaze, but if you look closely, you can see pain in his eyes as he reads the three plaques.

The first one reads:

_"My first love, my first personal sacrifice, I'll forever remember the words you said that night, telling me what I was doing was wrong, that I was abusing my powers, and that I was selfish. But what killed me the most was that even though your words were angry, your eyes said only one thing: disapointment. I wished that things could've ended differently that night, I wished I could've saved you, wish that I could be the man you would be proud of..._

The second one reads:

_"My brother, my unforgettable murder, I didn't want to kill you on top of the cathedral, I could barely keep my eyes open while shooting off bolts of lightning at you, but you know what? Karma's a sadistic bitch. When you finally fell, dead, some inches from me and as the RFI rolled straight to me, I could hear a voice ask myself, "Was it worth?" At the time I answered by destroying the RFI and accepting the powers of The Beast. I never wanted to kill you though, maybe when you betrayed me, but no I never wanted things to come down to deciding over your life or the lives of the few I can save, as the mistake that I made in Empire City would.. has forced my hand..._

Cole's eyes linger over the line _"was it worth it?"_ for a few seconds longer than the other words.

_'That wasn't the only time that the voice would ask the question, it kept asking me constantly "Was it worth it?" throughout the year. Though the same question, it asked different things: was it worth killing hundreds of people to save one, was it worth it when several of the people following me died because of the war I personally declared against mankind? Each and every time I would answer yes, each time I would avoid looking back while answering. But now that I did, I can hear a faint echo of a 'no' each time I answer yes."_

Cole reads the third and final one.

_"My friend, my unnecessary murder, I don't know why I put your neck between the two prongs of my Amp and put ten thousand volts coursing through your being till I saw the life leave your eyes. Maybe it was the need for me to make you be quiet when you shouted your disapointment at me, screamed at how you were wrong about me. I guess I couldn't handle that, guess the need was just too much that I didn't care how I shut you up, just that I didn't hear you anymore... All I had to do was simply stun you to get you out of my way, if that had happened maybe after you found out that John was dead, you would be with me and Kuo leading the Conduits..._

Cole stays there, looking at the resting places of the people that he held close, until he feels a cold hand grip his shoulder. He doesn't bother looking up and the woman behind him doesn't bother speaking to him as there's really nothing to be said. They've been through this routine for a couple of weeks now, each visit slowly getting longer than the last.

Cause in a few day's time, the Ray Sphere radiation would have reached the nearest continent and start infecting the billions of people there, making Cole leave to be the savior he was made to be by the Conduits and by two men.

As the night approaches and the two leave, one can see a patch of dirt that looked like it was just put in, sealing a photo of a wedding that would never happen, between the two graves of Trish and Zeke.

* * *

><p><strong>The reason why Nix's and Zeke's resting place is in Empire City even though they were killed in New Marais was that Cole fried their bodies into ashes after he got The Beast's powers and put them into seperate jars. <strong>


End file.
